Winter 2009 - Map Making Contest! UPDATED

[Doc Paterson]

I have a little bit of free time, so I'll use it to talk about a few of the finalists (I'll get to the others some time within the next few days, hopefully).

-2p Crescent Lake

This map really takes me back to 2004 Wesnoth; really raw and distinctive. I don't remember if and how much this map has changed since I play-tested it, but it did at the time seem that there was some P1 pressure that was in some matchups a little too severe (that Gryphon rush that I did was harsh against P2 Elves). A bit more mushroom and forest might help things a little, as might a bit more impassible in certain locations, but I'm sure Velensk can figure this out.

-2p Scarred Foothills

A pretty cool map all in all, but to me, it looks and feels a little too similar to Sulla's Ruins (village placement and spacing, waterway placement and formation, mountainous center, etc.) There are some things about the middle areas that bother me a bit- I'm not a fan of savanna terrain adjacent to standard grassland terrain, and to me, it looks kind of bad when the standard grassland is surrounded in such a way that it creates single-hex spherical formations. (Know what I mean? It doesn't do this when it is adjacent to other hexes of standard grassland. Take a look at 17,13 for an example.) Though it is a large-ish map, I'd still worry about a P1 rush here, because unlike something like Sulla's, the defending leader is farther from one of the two main fronts. Single-hex keeps like the advance keeps disadvantage certain factions- Undead, for example, have their WC usage decreased a bit. P2's water village is stealable by P1 flying units. 5, 13 can be stolen by a quick Elvish Scout, but that's not too big of a deal as the P2 leader will likely be headed in that direction anyway. This may sound like a lot of criticism, but it really is a pretty solid map.

-2p Courtyard

I love this visually and conceptually- I think it's one of the most creative maps entered. I'm guessing you really wanted to avoid mountains, in keeping with the theme, but I think that if you really want to do this, you'll need some other way to power up Knalgans, as they seem to me to be significantly weaker here, particularly against Drakes. Honestly I can't think of a way to do this without adding mountains- anything else would likely screw up the other matchups too much. One idea would be to have internal sections of the courtyard that are "undeveloped" so to speak, surrounded mostly by walls, as I did in the center of Arkanclave Citadel.

* * * * *

That's all I have time for now. I'll try to get to the others some time soon.

[tekelili]

Hi, I have been recently working again in my 3v3 map. It is hard to me do it often, becouse I just need to see the same game patterns some times to understand how is working a map and this take a lot in a 3v3 map. Not only a 13 turns game with 6 players take a lot, also just find players that want play a 3v3 at the same time can be a life work. So btw I dont think i am going to change any key concept of the map (may be next year) and just concentrate in make it as more playable and balanced as can be right now.

I did some little changes focused principally in 3 problems:

1-Speed recruitments to reach front, didnt looked necesary slow then so much.

2-More logical distances between villages and distribution on terrain.

3-Counterclockwise easy attack is intended, but seemed too easy wipe out defendending flank without a very well prepared defense from first turns and developed for experienced players that knew well the map, so I changed terrain a little for help defenders.

I am also trying different turn order, because this is a very cooperative 3v3 map and teams need turns in a row.

So, I have attached my map as it is right now so judges can say me if I am going in the right way to improve it. Of course anyother feedback and help will be welcome (special thanks to all players that helped me to test this map, I know a 3v3 it is hard if you are not in the right mod).

...and happy christmas

EDIT: I did a mess with turn order no changing well cng file, so I have replaced map with an updated version. It also includes some impassible terrain as drakes looked overpowered in last tests and in general armies were too concentrated.

volcano map&cfg.rar

(1.62 KiB) Downloaded 402 times

[Rigor]

i really like crescent lake, its big enough to finally let scouts rock as they should and to use them to steal villages in peace

the middle of the map is a real bottleneck for switching sides quickly between fronts. luckily, its also big enough for more than just 1 unit.

good work overall.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Here is updated version of my map. I replaced some forest/hill hexes with plain to improve long games dynamics. Also changed description and center of the map to be more related to its name.

[tekelili]

I think I am close to a final version of my map that I can submit to contest. Here is an interisting replay of a game in my last version btw. Players game is not very good, (at least my wasnt), but I think is very ilustrative to show all the possible flows it allows (including a funy dwarf travel around the volcano to get a boss back ). I think the current turn order is the right one and found a decorative way to give each player an extra village (preflaged). I will thank any feedback, this map is getting better with wesnoth comunity colaboration

[Velensk]

Here is the most recent version of my map incase I don't have time to put it up later.

[UngeheuerLich]

I had the honour to playtest crescent lake. Very nice map. It is large however and although you have two keeps, both are very far away from the front. So slower races have sometimes problems acting on both sides. There are however nice countermeasures taken to make this problem less severe. So a bit knowledge about the map and their dynamics are needed as always.

[dartboy]

Hi, was wondering if there is a way to see all the finalists? And if not, I was wondering if all the finalist maps were going to be put into a map-pack? Finalists Late 2009 perhaps?

My thinking is that, more likely than not, probably more than just the winner is going to be really good!

Thanks to everyone for all your hard work making new maps!! Yaay!

Seb.

[Rigor]

i completely agree. best would be to have all the maps in the 1.6. version to check them out (but i know...just saying)

[jb]

Obviously things have been crazy with the holiday season, and we've fallen a bit behind.

I've found many of you online and given some form of feedback, but any finalist still waiting to get some input for map revisions either needs to find me online, or send me a PM and schedule a play-test. If a play-test doesn't interest you, no worries. Your last submitted version will be used.

cheers,
jb

[tekelili]

I feel unsure about deadline, but if it didnt expired, this is my last version before it does.

[Doc Paterson]

Speaking for myself, most of the school/holiday chaos has finally died down, and I'm ready to get going again.

[tsr]

Speaking for myself, most of the school/holiday chaos has finally died down, and I'm ready to get going again.

Yay! Then in a month or five I might get some feedback on my map too

/tsr

[Doc Paterson]

Speaking for myself, most of the school/holiday chaos has finally died down, and I'm ready to get going again.

Yay! Then in a month or five I might get some feedback on my map too

/tsr

Do you want it here, or in a PM?

[Velensk]

I know that I would prefer if you posted your feedback for his map (and all others including mine) here.